FLINT, MI –- Single and out of work, Thomas Matthews was among hundreds who turned out Saturday, Dec. 1, for two food and clothing giveaways in Flint and Burton.

“I’m
getting disability and it’s not enough money to help cover all of my
bills,” he said. “I was able to work overtime before I got on disability
and I needed that extra money to pay all my bills, so it’s hard now.”

Matthews is among the many who say they would not otherwise be able to make
ends meet without help from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and its partnerships with
local organizations such as Crossover Downtown Outreach Ministries, a faith-based, non-denominational mission group that sponsored Saturday's giveaways.

Services like the mobile food pantry truck are made available to various food pantries at a cost of $500 for distribution within 40 miles of the Food Bank’s Flint location, or $600 for sites beyond 40 miles.

The Food Bank delivers 12 pallets of assorted foods for giveaways.

For organizations who would like to organize a mobile food pantry, the Food Bank has six key instructions to follow:

1. Find a location for distribution. This may be the parking lot of your agency, a school, or other easily accessible location within the community, but make sure you have permission first!

2. Schedule a day and time for delivery with the Food Bank.

3. Announce the time of distribution to your clients and others in the neighborhood that are in need.

4. On the day of distribution, have volunteers on-site to help distribute food and record who received it.

5. After all food from the trailer is distributed, dispose of all trash and return pallets and unused boxes to trailer bays.

6. Secure the trailer for the evening and the Food Bank will pick it up the following day.

"What works great about the mobile pantry is that smaller
organizations can host larger distribution days wherever they want to have
them," said Kara Ross, vice president of the Food Bank.

"Most organization's regular pantries are usually open two
or three days a week, but we do about seven to 10 mobile pantries a week in the
summer and four or five in the winter months. A lot of our partner agencies
tend to do more distributions around the holidays as well."

To raise money for the Food Bank's programs, the organization is in the midst of $925,000 fundraising campaigns.

MLive-Flint Journal is a sponsor of that holiday campaign and readers will find donation envelopes in the Dec. 2
newspaper editions.

Since 1996, the food bank has raised more than $7.7 million, enough to provide more than 46 million meals for local families.